Rolls-Royce Releases Ghost Specifications

Trickle, trickle. Rolls-Royce is really dragging this one out, aren't they? We saw the concept, then got a name announced, then heard about more variants and in among all of that, many spy shots of the car sans camouflage have been captured.

The strategy must be working though: Rolls-Royce said it has received more than 10,000 "expressions of interest" in the Ghost, with around 1,500 of those "expressing a serious desire to own the vehicle." Your guess is as good as mine whether or not that means orders.

536 horsepower and 575 pound-feet to the wheels! Whoa! Talk about performance, the smaller Ghost is packing even more power than it's larger brother the Phantom. That power works out to a 0-60 time of 4.7 seconds, an incredible figure of a luxury sedan of this size (and a Rolls-Royce luxury sedan, no less).

Rolls-Royce seems to go back and forth on exactly what the Ghost will be like though. For instance:

"Rolls-Royce power is entirely different to anything else in the automotive world. It is delivered free from stress and exertion but at the same time must engage the driver. Ghost is about fingertip control while still enjoying a dynamic connection with the road. Equally passengers need to be cosseted from the physical sensations of acceleration, braking and cornering. Our chassis set up keeps Ghost stable and flat, preventing it from wallowing or pitching in the corners or imposing undesirable forces on those inside."

What? To me that seems contradictory. Regardless of how the Ghost behaves dynamically (which I'm very interested in knowing), we do know the Ghost is going to be seriously fast. Deliveries in the United Kingdom start late this year at a price of £165,000 (around $271,000 USD at current exchange rates). U.S, Asian and Pacific deliveries are slated for the second quarter of 2010, and pricing for our markets have yet to be announced.